Baca EPUB: west-irian-will-be-liberated

This work was first published in the Afro-Asian Bulletin (Cairo, January-February, 1962) Volume IV No. 1-2.

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The situation in the Eastern part of Indonesia, in West Irian, is now very explosive due to the continued domination and occupation of Dutch colonial troops in West Irian and their refusal to transfer this Indonesian territory to the fold of the motherland, the Republic of Indonesia. The Indonesian people who are well known as the most patient and tolerant people in the world have lost their hope to settle the West Irian question with the Dutch in a peaceful way. We have made great effort to negotiate with the Dutch from 1950 to 1957 and from this negotiation it is clear that the Dutch have not the slightest intention to end their colonial domination and exploitation on West Irian. The Dutch used the time during the negotiations merely to strengthen their armed forces in West Irian, turn this territory into a centre of subversion and espionage directed against the Republic of Indonesia. During this negotiation period the Dutch not only openly declared in 1952 that their constitution has been officially changed in such a way to include West Irian as a territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they continuously instigated and organized counter revolutionary mutinies and revolts in Indonesia, from the occupied territory of West Irian. Let me give some examples:

(1)

In January 1950, immediately after the Dutch officially recognized the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia, they instructed a notorious paratroops battalion of the Dutch army under the leadership of a savage Dutch captain called Westerling, who has butchered not less than 40,000 Indonesian civilians in South Sulawesi during the national liberation war, to stage a coup d’etat in Bandung.

(2)

In April, the same year, the Dutch plotted with an ex-colonel of the Dutch colonial army in Indonesia, Sultan Hamid, whom the Dutch once promoted as head of a puppet state in Kalimantan, to overthrow the government of the Republic of Indonesia.

(3)

In the same month the Dutch plotted again in South Sulawesi with a certain captain of the ex-colonial troops to oppose the central government of the Republic of Indonesia.

(4)

Again in the same year the Dutch plotted with reactionary circles in South Moluccas to create a secessionist state. In fact they already proclaimed such a puppet state a la Katanga of Tshombe. This so-called president of the puppet state has now fled to Holland. And the Dutch imperialists are waiting for another chance to use this notorious stooge.

(5)

From the beginning of 1950 to up till now the Dutch and SEATO bloc headed by the U.S. imperialists continuously supported a terrorist movement called the “Darul Islam.”

All these plots and conspiracies of the Dutch imperialists and the SEATO have been foiled by the Indonesian people and Government with the support of the Afro-Asian Peoples and all progressive forces the world over. It is no secret that in all these activities the Dutch colonialists rely mainly on U.S. imperialism. Without the support of the SEATO headed by the U.S. imperialists the Dutch imperialists can not stay one day longer in West Irian and carry on their subversion and aggression against Indonesia.

All the supplies of Dutch forces in West Irian are U.S. made and sent to this territory with full consent of the U.S. government.

Why does the U.S. support the Dutch imperialists? Of course first of all it is the nature of the U.S. imperialists and all imperialists in the world to support each other in their aggression and exploitation. But there is another explanation. Washington is interested in Holland retaining her grip on West Irian because it regards this territory as a potential bridge-head in the Far East. During his visit to The Hague, Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, Chief of the U.S. Naval operation, declared outrightly that the Pentagon hoped to obtain military bases in West Irian.

U.S. big business is also quite keen about West Irian. It is fabulously rich in minerals, gold and iron, oil and uranium, and non ferrous metals. This wealth is only just being explored, but Wall Street has already laid hands on it. For instance, nearly all oil deposits have been seized by the Nederlands New Guinea Petroleum Maatschappij, in which 60% of the shares are held by the Americans.

Some time ago the Dutch Parliament passed a bill granting a joint U.S.-Dutch company a 75 year concession to explore and mine diverse minerals in West Irian. Survey expeditions are being financed by American monopolies. So, this is another explanation of why the U.S. is so interested in West Irian being maintained as a colony of the Dutch. This is indeed not very strange. To-day, U.S. imperialists are the ringleaders of all reactionaries in the world. The IIIrd All African People Conference, held in Cairo last year, and the IVth Session of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Council, held in Bandung last year, have very correctly condemned the U.S. imperialists as the common and principle enemy of the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the whole world, as the main instigator and source of aggressive wars which the peoples of the world must fight against in order to gain and protect national independence and safeguard peace of the world.

After the failure of the negotiations between Indonesia and the Dutch and having curbed and foiled all the plots, conspiracies and subversion against the Republic of Indonesia by the Dutch imperialists, we again tried to get this West Irian question solved, that is returned to the Republic of Indonesia, through peaceful means, through the United Nations. This we did more than three times. What is the result? A very big zero. What is worse! The Dutch and American imperialists are now using the UNO as their tool to continue domination over West Irian and many other colonies and territories under the UN-Trusteeship or protectorate. Yet, the U.N. proved to be supporting the Dutch imperialists. It is true, to-day the U.N. has done more harm to the peoples than service. It is not necessary to recall the Korean war in which the U.S. under the Blue Flag of the U.N. was butchering and murdering the peaceful Korean people. Only recently we witnessed the assassination of one of the most staunch African Patriot and leader Patrice Lumumba, after he invited the U.N. to help the Congo. The UN, instead of condemning the U.S. occupation of the Chinese territory of Taiwan, has on the contrary prevented China from assuming her legal right in the U.N.

Thus, the Indonesian people after having their own bitter experience with the UNO could not any more have any hope in this body concerning the West Irian question; and we warn all our friends not to have any illusion in the UNO. President Sukarno very correctly pointed out in a mass rally in East Indonesia recently, that Indonesia would not ask United Nations help to get what it wanted. “We trust only our own strength”, said President Sukarno. We decided to make the Dutch imperialist understand what we want by our own means, since the Dutch can not understand it by negotiations and any other peaceful means. Mobilization of the masses for the liberation of West Irian and stop their plots, conspiracies and aggression.

Facing this firm determination of the Indonesian people, the Dutch now openly with the U.S. support, were recently plotting again in the U.N. in order to maintain domination in West Irian. Concerning this new plot, Mr. Youssef El Sebai, on behalf of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation issued a statement in which he said: “Realising the failure of the notorious methods to subjugate its people in West Irian, the Dutch colonialists together with the U.S. and other imperialists are plotting—at the present U.N. General Assembly—to use the U.N. trusteeship as a cover and new means of continuing their domination and exploitation or to internationalise the problem of West Irian as they call it. This Dutch-U.S. scheme using the so-called “right of self-determination” for the people of West Irian, as a pretext, is destined to use the UNO as a tool of neo-colonialism, and to transfer Dutch domination over West Irian to a joint exploitation of imperialist powers headed by the U.S. In their dirty plot the imperialists are playing with the word of “self-determination” in order to deceive the peoples of the world.

“The events in the Congo have clearly shown to the peoples that the U.N. is being used by the imperialists for their own selfish objectives of dividing and dominating this rich African country and at the same time systematically liquidating the real patriotic leaders of the Congolese people. U.N. Trusteeship’s territory and protectorate in Africa and the Pacific also revealed the truth that it is merely a cover of domination and exploitation by the imperialist powers under the U.N. Flag.”

Due to the firm determination of the Indonesian people and government and the support and solidarity of Afro-Asian peoples and all progressive forces the world over, this manoeuvre of the imperialists in the UNO has met with failure.

The Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Permanent Secretariat, in its statement very recently and correctly declares that:

“At the present moment the Dutch colonialists, strongly supported by the U.S. and other imperialists are concentrating their efforts to liquidate physically the national liberation movement in West Irian and further to establish a puppet state of the so-called “state of Papua.” At the same time Dutch military reinforcement is flowing to West Irian.

“Experience repeatedly shows that the colonialists and imperialists will never voluntary give up their colonies and exploitation. They will not understand the aspiration of the peoples to be free unless they are forced to do so. Therefore, the Permanent Secretariat, speaking on behalf of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Movement, strongly condemns the continued Dutch domination of West Irian, and wholeheartedly welcomes and strongly supports the preparation and mobilization of the peoples of Indonesia to hoist the Indonesia “Red and White Flag” in West Irian and liberate this territory from colonial domination. The liberation of this territory from imperialist yoke will eliminate another hot bed of war and thus promote peace and security in this area.

“The Permanent Secretariat calls upon the peoples and Government of Asia, Africa and Latin America and other freedom loving forces in the world to redouble their support to the struggle of the Indonesia people to liberate West Irian. It calls especially upon the peoples and the workers in the harbours and aerodromes of Asian and African countries to boycott any Dutch ship and aeroplane used to transport troops, reinforcement and military equipments to West Irian.”

Here I want to add to the appeal of Permanent Secretariat; on behalf of the Indonesian people, I call upon the workers of Port Said, Suez Canal, Cairo Airport, Beirut Airport, Damascus, Casablanca, Tunis, Baghdad, Bahrein, Dhahran, Karachi, Bombay, New Delhi, Colombo, Rangoon, Bangkok, Tokyo, Tokobara, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and other workers of Airports and harbours in all Asian and African countries; I call upon the workers in Panama Canal and other Latin American countries. I also call upon the workers and the peoples of Australia who have demonstrated their solidarity during the national liberation war with the Indonesian peoples; I call upon all these brave workers and peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and Australia to boycott any Dutch ships and aeroplanes used to transport reinforcement and military equipments to West Irian. I CALL UPON THESE BROTHERS THAT IN THE EVENT OF WAR BETWEEN INDONESIA AND DUTCH IMPERIALIST, TO BOYCOTT EVERY DUTCH SHIP PASSING THROUGH THEIR COUNTRIES.

The Afro-Asian Permanent Secretariat further said that the continued Dutch domination over West Irian and their refusal to transfer peacefully this territory to the Republic of Indonesia is a deliberate action to provoke war over this area. It is clear that such a war will be a just liberation war for the Indonesia people and will be supported by all progressive forces in the world, since this is a war to complete their national independence. On the contrary this war will be a colonial war on the side of the Dutch imperialists and will be condemned by mankind. Such is the position of the Afro-Asian Solidarity movement toward the West Irian question.

The imperialists’ plots and manoeuvres and conspiracies and aggression are not only directed against Indonesia. The U.S. imperialists are plotting and organising a new invasion against the brave people of Cuba. In South Vietnam the U.S. imperialists are intervening in a more wider scale in propping up the anti peoples regime of Ngo Dien Diem. In North East Asia the U.S. is planning a new military pact called the NEATO with South Korea and Japan as the nucleus. Also Laos is still suffering from imperialists’ intervention. At the same time the U.S. is continuing the occupation of Chinese island of Taiwan. In Africa the imperialists are busy settling their affairs to dominate the Congo and meanwhile practising neo-colonialist methods.

In Algeria, France, while paying lip service for a peaceful solution, is continuing massacring the Algerian peoples.

And here in the Middle East the British imperialists, covered by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. are starting again a new imperialist plan.

The Indonesian people while fighting for the liberation of West Irian strongly condemn the British and U.S. imperialist moves in the Middle East and declare our solidarity with the Arab peoples, and all Asian and African peoples.

In our support to all Arab peoples in their struggle against imperialism and colonialism we also realized that the Dutch imperialists are strongly supporting Israel, the imperialist stooge in the Middle East and Africa. Dutch support to Israel is obvious from the visit of Dutch Minister of War last year to Israel in order to attend Israeli military training. Later on the Dutch decided to contribute in arming Israel. Dutch support to Israel is not confined to military field only. Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Josef Luns stated in the Dutch Parliament that his Government will propose Israel to be member of the European Common Market.

Even though Indonesia is surrounded and encircled by aggressive military pacts as the SEATO, ANZUS and proposed NEATO, by aggressive military bases in Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and the Philippines, by the 7th and 5th U.S. Fleet in the Pacific and South China Sea, which are supporting the Dutch, we are not afraid and resolutely determined to liberate West Irian and carry on our anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist struggle for complete national independence. On the contrary we are waiting for the command to be issued by President Sukarno to expel the Dutch colonialists from our territory of West Irian by means of force.

We are strong, because our struggle is just and supported by all Asian, African and Latin American peoples and all freedom-loving forces the world over. We are strong because Afro-Asian people are with us. Of course we are peace-loving nation. We are for peace! But peace can be enjoyed only after the imperialists are routed from our territory, only when the imperialists are forced to stop their aggression. Continue to struggle against imperialism and colonialism until they are completely liquidated that is our creed and banner!